Dubai, Qatar and Saudi exchanges hit new highs

As all Arab equity markets scaled the first quarter of 2014 with some index gains, optimistic share-buying secured a good start to the second quarter for Gulf equities, with new five-year highs in three of the seven securities markets in the Gulf Cooperation Council. Elsewhere, several other Arab markets also had a good week in index terms but the Egyptian and Omani markets suffered. [pullquote] All GCC securities markets were in positive territory for the year to date [/pullquote] The good performance of Arab markets coincided with relatively cheery news from developed and emerging stock markets, where the S&P 500 hitting a record high, the Dow Jones narrowly missing, while another global equities index reached a six-year high. Gulf Markets The Dubai Financial Market (DFM), Qatar Exchange (QX) and Saudi Tadawul all got up to their highest readings since the recession began in April 2009. Closing the trading week respectively